Karm Architecture Lab | 77 floors, a beachfront villa that “breathes” in Port Alam, Egypt

This single-storey three bedroom family holiday villa is conceived as a real country building in an idyllic seaside location in the desert countryside of eastern Egypt, next to the desert and the Red Sea. Due to the climatic conditions of the site and the exposed location of the structure, the summer temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius, the design of the dwelling is largely influenced by the environmental strategy that protects it. Inspired by biobiology and the philosophy of kinetics, the beachfront villa is designed as a creature that reacts to climatic conditions, creating a comfortable indoor environment for residents.

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Constructed with natural stone exactly the same as the ground, the villa is a celebration of the ancient desert landscape once submerged under water. Built from coral limestone fossils, load-bearing walls have weathered thousands of years and are ideal for sustainable residential building materials. No excavation is required to extract this material, as the entire structure is built by recycling waste rubble collected from excavation sites near the works. Compared to similar projects, this most forgotten building module uses only local craftsmanship experienced in remote areas, reducing construction costs by about 40%. The thick 45 cm and 60 cm load-bearing earth walls perform very well, retaining heat during the day, releasing heat slowly at night, and vice versa in winter. In addition, natural building materials allow the walls to “breathe” and, in some cases, when the temperature changes, condensate droplets form on the surface of the interior walls, thus performing a cooling function similar to the sweating of human skin. However, the greatest gift this natural building material has to offer is the preserved ancient marine fossils that once covered the desert as geological masterpieces.

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The most striking feature of the villa are the two ventilation towers, which protrude from the center of the structure like the antennae of desert animals. One tower acts as a trap to absorb cooled natural air indoors, while the other serves as a solar chimney to exhale hot air, both designed to be used alternately at different times of the day.

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Other environmental strategies include a second layer of skin coral limestone and bamboo walls, which wrap around the southern elevation of the house like the protective shell of a desert creature, protecting the interior walls of the house from the direct heat of the daytime sun. The house is ideally located with the rear entrance facing south and facing the sea overlooking the prevailing northern wind. The cantilevered roof slab and protruding walls at the large glass opening on the north face form further recesses, adding a second layer of protection to prevent overheating in the early morning.

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In addition, the flat layout features a crab-like design, ensuring that every indoor space can seamlessly enjoy 180-degree views of the Red Sea, while keeping the planes concise and compact, helping to create cool indoor and outdoor spaces, and have multiple outdoor green spaces (native plant species not yet planted.) The compressed but porous layout also ensures natural cross-ventilation is achieved in each main space, with all 3 bedrooms and the main open living area carefully arranged inlets and exits, reducing the reliance on mechanical cooling by natural airflow.

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